| Sunny Money: How Solar Water Heaters Save You Cash:
Lon Bottcher from Pacific Solar System explains how his units work: These are solid ones with big cores in them, 4 inch copper cores all up inside of here and the water goes back and forth in here and heats up when it comes out…goes in cold here, comes out hot there and it gets hot very during the day here and good for all night and next day…you always have hot water here. More specifically, the unit absorbs the sun’s rays in this part and there’s a reflective coating under the tempered glass which keeps the rays bouncing back and forth – this process is what heats up the water…and because of the sheet of material that’s beneath the glass, the rays are trapped inside keeping the heat within the unit. Wondering what size you’ll need for your family? “When you have smaller family 2 or 3 then 30 gallon, 4 or 5 is 40 gallon and 6 or 7 is 50 gallon water heater.” A solar water heater…like most energy saving products, is an investment, so while the cost up front may seem a bit much, keep in mind that the unit in time…will pay for itself. “What this is going to cost them you see in the payments of the hot water heaters that most of them use is electric hot water heaters and this one here will reduce usage by about 25 percent and you take 25 percent off of each power bill this will allow them to pay this off in about a year or so and then it’s all free water from then on.” And while they’re called solar water heaters….Lon assures that they work even on the gloomiest of days. “Ultraviolet light is going through all the time even when it’s cloudy…it’ll be warm in the daytime too…it may not be the same as having hot sunshine but you’re still gonna have warm water at the end of the day,” said Bottcher. And depending on where you need it most, we leave you with some advice as to where you should place the solar heater if you decide to get one: “The best thing to do when install is install mainly where you’re gonna use them like over the shower or in bathroom or also close to sink if restaurant, but most people use most in shower bath and that’s where installed so right above so don’t have to wait 5 minutes to get hot water there.” With a number of companies selling solar water heaters these days, chances are you can find one that will do the job for a price you can afford…but be sure to inquire about things like warranties and most especially, whether the units are proven to withstand Guam’s typhoons.
|
|
||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
